One Of The Most Guarded Places On Earth Is Located Here In Colorado

Which location do you think is the most guarded place in Colorado? It's not the Denver Mint, and it's not the ICBMs out in Weld County. Colorado's most guarded location is the Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado Springs.

Colorado's Cheyenne Mountain Complex is home to both NORAD, and USNORTHCOM's Alternate Command Center and training facilities. At one time, the complex was NORAD command, the U.S. Space Command, Aerospace Defense Command, Air Force Systems Command, the Air Weather Service, and FEMA.

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Security at Cheyenne Mountain Complex

When the complex officially opened in 1965, it may have been the most guarded facility in the United States Military. Today it is still the most secure and guarded facility in the state of Colorado.

Inside the mountain, 15 buildings sit underneath two thousand feet of solid granite rock. The two twenty-ton blast doors that seal the bunker both take about 45 seconds to close. These doors are kept open unless an emergency is declared. The last time both doors were ordered closed was on September 11th, 2001.

Operation Centers Inside Cheyenne Mountain

Cheyenne Mountain is currently home to the Air Operations Center, the Missle Warning Center, the Space Control Center, the NORAD Combined Command Center, the Combined Intelligence Watch Center, the National Warning Facility, the Space and Warnings System Center, and the Weather Support Center.

To make room for all of this, workers had to clear 693,000 tons of granite during the five years it took to build the complex.

The Four Lakes of Cheyenne Mountain

In addition to several incredible facts about the complex, inside the mountain, four lakes sustain the water system for the facility. They are patrolled by a single rowboat. There is a fifth lake under the mountain that is known as the fuel lagoon. It's a lake filled with 510,000 gallons of generator fuel. I assume there is no smoking allowed inside Cheyenne Mountain.